ELIZABETHTOWN AND PORT HENRY QUADRANGLES II 



York portion of the Port Henry is approximately 68, making a total 

 of 293 square miles. Both sheets lie in the fourth tier from the 

 International boundary and the southern limit is approximately 

 115 miles from Albany. The area lies entirely in Essex county. The 

 lagest town is Port Henry which is the business center. At the 

 last census it was credited with 1751 inhabitants. The number 

 fluctuates with the activity of the local blast furnace. Mineville, 

 including Witherbee, 5 miles to the northwest, is second. Its popu- 

 lation is about the same but it also varies with the operations of the 

 great iron mines. The town of Moriah, wdiich contains them both 

 and other smaller villages, had 4447. Westport towm was credited 

 with 1727 people and Elizabethtown village with 491. Both are 

 essentially dependent upon the local agriculture and the summer 

 visitors, with whom both are justly popular. Wadhams Mills has 

 an important water power and electric installation, but the other 

 local aggregations of people, Moriah Center, Moriah Corners, and 

 New^ Russia are smaller. Back from the lake the rest of the area, 

 except for an occasional farm along the highways is largely a tor- 

 ested series of hills and mountains, broken by precipitous escarp- 

 ments, extremely rough in their relief. Only tW'O highways cross 

 the 17.5 miles of the western border and of these the northern one 

 is alone much traveled. The southern one, from Underwood to the 

 Keene valley by Chapel pond is none the less one of the finest 

 drives in the mountains. 



Along the lake, in the flat forelands, the farms extend continu- 

 ously and are located upon a level and easily subdued surface. The 

 scenery, embracing as it does this combination of wild mountains 

 and cultivated lands, is of great charm and beauty. The view from 

 Bald Knob commands the valley of Lake Champlain as far as the 

 eye can reach, the distant range of the Green mountains, and the 

 high peaks of the Adirondacks, 30 miles to the westward. It is 

 thus one of the most comprehensive in the mountains and in its 

 physiographic features one of the most suggestive and instructive 

 in the East. No observer, unless dull and unimpressionable beyond 

 belief, can leave it wdthout fairly wrenching himself from its con- 

 templation by force of will, exercised because of the unavoidable 

 pressure of other duties. 



Chapter 2 



PHYSIOGRAPHY 



The lowest point within the area is the surface of Lake Cham- 

 plain. This varies through several feet between conditions of high 

 and low water but it ranges so near 100 feet above tide, that this 



